Bright as a Beacon
by digitalruki
Summary: Glitch was a lot more aware than most people thought. He was just kind of...distracted. Sequel to "Headcase." Glitch/DG
1. Found

_Title: Bright as a Beacon, Chapter 1_

_Author: digitalruki_

_Rating: PG_

_Characters: Glitch/DG_

_Summary: Sequel to "Headcase". DG's quest through the eyes of her most loyal friend, Glitch.  
_

_Author's Note & Disclaimer: I don't own Tin Man. I wrote a chapter preceding this, but it was terrible so I've scrapped it. Any feedback on this fic would be most welcome._

-0-

Glitch used to be a brilliant inventor. Ideas would spill out of his head faster than he could write them down, and he could tackle any puzzle he was presented with.

But that was then, and this is Glitch, and Glitch hasn't been concerned much with puzzles lately. He's been distracted by the great big Nothing that fills his head.

Right now he's distracted by the smell of DG's hair, inches from his face.

Crouched behind a tree trunk, huddled close together, holding their breath and stretching their ears to pick out the sound of tiny footsteps following their trail. Having made their escape from the Eastern Guild, the possibility that they might be persued hasn't escaped them.

But he's not thinking about that right now, because right now he's distracted by the smell of DG's hair. Inches from his face. And right now an idea, small as a spider but bright as a beacon, is forming in his head.

It had started some time ago, when, during the course of his wanderings, he had felt a curious sensation on the side of his body. To be more specific, it had been coming from the east. From that horizon he felt a pull, a calling. And, being a man with no direction or purpose, he had decided that now was as good a time as any to make one.

He had walked, and walked, and walked, each day becoming more and more certain of the feet under him, and the path far ahead. Unfortunately, his growing elation was cut short one morning by the Eastern Guild.

It was almost embarressing for one of his former intellect that he had been captured so easily. (But, to be fair, when your brain doesn't technically exist, it's easy to get distracted.) He had been thinking how nice a day it was. The sky was cloudy, the wind was blowing, and he felt amazing. Like, if he tried to remember something today, he would absolutely be able to.

And then she appeared, like a cool summer rain, and now he just can't stop thinking about her. He can't explain it, but he knows. His newfound clarity and her sudden appearance are connected. He also knows that he really, really likes...being able to think.

"I don't hear them anymore, do you?" she whispers, craning her neck around the tree trunk and, coincedentally, his shoulders. He shudders as her hair brushes against his nose.

His current level of awareness is similar that of being slightly drunk, which, for Glitch, is an improvement. Unfortunately, this means he can't fully control his mouth, and he finds it answering for him in a high-pitched voice, "Your hair is tickling my nose."

Which doesn't answer her question. DG takes this to mean that his ticklishness is more pressing than their escape status, and quickly sits back, flipping her hair behind her shoulders. "Sorry, are you okay?" she says, putting her hand on his shoulder. She seems to think he meant that he was uncomfortable with her hair tickling his nose. And that touching him on the shoulder will really help. Focus, Glitch. What was her first question?

The munchkins. "I don't hear them." he squeaks, leaning over to peer around and feeling her hand slip from his shoulder to the ground. Oh well. "I don't see them either." Scanning the horizon, he adds, "I don't hear them either." He sits back down beside her and smiles reassuringly. "I think we're safe."

She buries her face in her hands, rubbing hard at her temples. "Oh, God," she groans, "What the hell am I doing here?"

Even before he thinks that he should comfort her, he finds his hand is already patting her head. His acute muscle memory still suprises him. "If it makes you feel any better," he says, "I have absolutely no idea."

She's silent and motionless long enough for him to worry if that was maybe the wrong thing to say. His hand pulls back, but he's startled when she quickly raises her head to look at him. Her face is oddly curious, but not mad. She just looks at him.

He figures since she's looking, it won't hurt to look back. So he does. Looks at her slightly scrunched eyebrows, the way her hair looks like it's windswept even when she's still. Looks at her eyes, practically glowing, they're so bright. He can almost see the magic flowing off her. And he thinks, if he could just speak her name, right now, while she's looking at him, he'll remember something really important. DG--

"Oh, no!" she bursts out. Startled, he realizes belatedly how close they just were. Now she's leaning back, clutching her throat, glancing around their tree trunk anxiously. "My locket. I forgot to get my locket!" She stumbles, tripping over a root as she tries to stand up. She's trying to run back and get it.

He grabs for her as she scuttles out of their hiding place. "No, DG, wait!", he hisses, pulling her back to her knees. She looks at him, maybe waiting for him to tell her why exactly she should stick around. "There are longcoats and murderous little people running around out there. Besides," he reasons, and hey, he used to be the smartest man in the O.Z., right? "It was just a necklace. A trinket. Surely your life is more--"

"More, what, huh?" she interjects. From somewhere in his head a little voice tells him not to answer. She still waits to see if he does, but he keeps his grimy lips shut.

"There was a picture of my parents in that locket," she says, kind of in a whisper, like she's trying to hide the squeak in her voice. "Parents who, for all I know, are dead on the side of the road to Central City or wherever, while I'm stuck here in Grimm's Forest with--" Her eyes land on his forehead, on the zipper. And he has the stongest urge to just cover it with his hand, but then he realizes she's not really looking at it. She's shaking her head a little. So many thoughts are swimming in her eyes.

"Look, I'm just gonna...go," she says, rising. The moment she steps out from the behind the tree, his breath is pulled out of him. He tries to stop her again, but he can't form the words. He makes the brief observation that he can feel thought leaving him, washing away as easily as chalk on a blackboard, and if he could only say something to make her stay--

"I don't think--" he begins, and then stops, because that's just it, isn't it. DG stops walking, anyway, and looks back with just the slightest bit of curiosity. He laughs nervously, and shrugs. "No, I mean, I _do_ think. That's just it." She turns around now, and crosses her arms. He feels slightly clearer. "When you're not around, I can't think straight."

"What?" she says, and maybe she isn't so much touched as she is freaked out. Okay, not the best way to put it.

"My brain," he begins, as he points to where it's supposed to be. He gets up, and steps forward, because now at least he has her attention. "What those medicoats did to it, see, wasn't just to block out memories. They took away my ability to...to..." He flails, trying to illustrate the universe with his hands. "Form thoughts. Solve puzzles. Be any kind of a threat. But I am."

She's still there, and hey, he can talk again. Splendid. "Look at me. Here I am talking to you, like a normal person. A day ago, that would have been impossible."

She shifts her weight, saying, "You think I've got something to do with that?"

He nods. "Yes."

She looks back towards the direction of the Eastern Guild, towards her locket, and then in the opposite direction. Calmly considering her options, he figures. But then she looks back to him. Looking, for all the world, like a lost little girl.

And, just like that, he knows what she needs to hear. "Let's find your parents, DG," he says, and turns to walk down the path. He raises his arm, offering it to her. "Let's figure this out. Together."

With one last glance back, perhaps, to the shredded remains of her home, she steps forward and wraps her arm in his.


	2. Friends

Title: Bright as a Beacon, Chapter 2

Author: digitalruki

Rating: PG

Pairing: Glitch/DG

Summary: Sequel to "Headcase". Scenes in-between scenes of Tin Man.

Author's Note & Disclaimer: I don't own Tin Man. Any feedback on this fic would be awesome.

-0-

It occurs to DG that each of them is severely lacking in some important thing. Glitch's shortcoming is obvious. Mr. Cain's is more metaphysical. DG's, well. You could say she's missing a sense of belonging, of security, or enough energy to keep up with Mr. Cain's relentless pace.

The Brick Route winds through the uneven forest, marked only by the occasional grouping of worn-down yellow bricks. As she walks, she keeps her head down, to watch her step. The bricks form scrolling patterns below her. She watches them appear and disappear before her as she walks.

"DG!" she hears Glitch's velvety voice call. A hand on her shoulder, and she turns to see him, with a worried look on his face. Glitch seems to like to stick close to her. To his defense, it seems to make him think more clearly. And that, in turn, makes it almost impossible for her to see him as a convict or a clown or a nutcase when he's this close.

What she notices is how far off the trail she is. In fact, she's standing in the middle of a clearing about five yards to the right. "Oops," she shrugs, and trudged back on track, right behind Mr. Cain where she's supposed to be.

"You can't keep wandering off," grumbles Mr. Cain, not turning back this time.

"Well, I wouldn't if I knew where the heck we were supposed to be going," she retorts. They've been going back and forth like this since they started.

Cain stops dead in his tracks and turns to face her. Narrowing his pale, sharp eyes on her, he hisses, "You won't get anywhere if I leave you two out here to fend for yourselves. I told you to keep quiet and stay behind me. My patience is wearing thin, so." He turns back to his marching, as if this is the end of it. But DG doesn't agree.

So she's suprised when she doesn't hear her own voice throwing out a snide rebuttal. Instead, the voice comes from behind her.

"So, what?" calls Glitch. "Maybe if we rub a little harder, we'll break through patience and reach--" his hand slips into hers, "--humanity?"

A reassuring squeeze in her palm. Cain stops again, slowly, and turns on them. His cold eyes find Glitch this time. "Way I figure," he says, "Compassion calls for sympathy, which will only happen when I care what you feel.

"You and me are just headed the same way, and that's all. Shut up and be grateful."

DG isn't used to having people stick up for her. Usually that's her job, and she's good at it.

"Excuse me, but I think we all have a valid reason for walking in the same direction, and frankly we're not getting anywhere by arguing." She's still clutching Glitch's hand. Not for support, but comfort. Admittedly, the unbidden affection he expresses for her is...kind of contageous.

"We all need to get to Central City," she reasons, "Right? You need to find your man, I've got to find my parents, and Glitch--" She stops short when she comes to Glitch, "Oh. What exactly are you looking for, again?"

"Um..." Glitch gives a little chuckle. "I've already found it. I'm kind of just along for the ride."

His eyes find hers, beaming, and she's tempted to smile back, but they've got an audience. Staring at the charming crazy person on her arm might not be a convincing argument for Mr. Cain.

"The point," she says, "Is that you do care what we feel, Mr. Cain. Because we all feel the same thing."

"I don't believe that's true," Cain grinds out through a scowl.

Reasoning will not work with this man. She shirks off Glitch's reassuring arm and breaks into a run, darting ahead of both of them on the path. She can hear Glitch tripping along after her, and Cain's steady stride follows suit.

She yells up into the trees, "I freaking hate Longcoats!" The yelling makes her lose her balance, and she stops. Glitch and Cain catch up with her as she continues to explain vehemently to nobody, "They took my parents, they tore apart my home, and now I'm stuck with these two crazies!"

"Who are you talking to?" asks Glitch, trying to see through the trees.

"I'm not crazy," grumbles Cain. "You better can it, girlie, before someone or something hears you. We're getting close to the Feilds of the Papay."

"Oh, thanks for reminding me," she says to Cain, "I hate Papay, too!"

"Wow, Mr. Cain, I think she's more angry than you." Glitch chances a friendly nudge at Cain. He stiffens at the touch, and turns away, heading on.

"We're wasting time," he says curtly, not bothering to turn around as he talks to them. "We have to keep moving if we want to pass the Fields by sundown."

DG and Glitch look at eachother. A smile grows between both of them. DG thinks it might be the biggest smile she's had since she picked herself up from the torn remains of her house this morning. "Wait," she calls, "So we're still allowed to tag along?"

Cain doesn't answer right away. Finally, he says, "Any enemy of the longcoats is a friend of mine."

"Friend?" Glitch and DG say in unison.

"There'll be no living with them," grumbles Mr. Cain.


	3. Blue Eyes

Title: Bright as a Beacon, Chapter 3

Author: digitalruki

Rating: PG

Pairing: Glitch/DG

Summary: Sequel to "Headcase". Scenes in-between scenes of Tin Man.

Author's Note & Disclaimer: Sorry for the terrible wait! I don't own Tin Man. Any feedback on this fic would be awesome.

-0-

His heart moves faster than his brain, and he is always short of breath, always running. It seems he's fallen in with a dangerous crowd, and he's fallen for a wanted criminal.

Glitch supposes, as he crouches with his companions in the back of DeMilo's caravan, that his feelings for DG aren't proper. For one thing, he has no idea how old he is, but he's pretty sure it's too old. And just because he can't remember any loved ones, doesn't mean he didn't have any.

But DG is more real to him than anything else. Even anything from...before. He feels it.

He also feels the bumps and corners of the city that bustles just outside the caravan. Sounds of machinery, high-pitched frequencies, and laughter drift through the cracks in the walls. The seer, Raw, shudders at each voice, each screech. DG only stares at the floor of the caravan, or perhaps at something farther away. Glitch thinks that if he were to reach out for her, she'd lose whatever she's focusing on.

He decides to count his fingers again. He likes to do that. No matter how many times he tries, it always comes out to ten.

DG won't tell him what happened in Milltown. They'd summoned her into a room, and Glitch wasn't allowed to go in, and then he'd been distracted by oncoming Longcoats, and they'd had to run. Always running. And DG ran with them, carrying in her gaze some new strength and some new sadness, and Glitch had wanted to stop, to let her breathe, to ask her what had happened.

Even now when they are still, when there is nothing to do but speak in quiet whispers, she won't say a word.

-0-

"What do you know about robots, Glitch?" she says, and Glitch hears the sound of a zipper pull. Not his, but one running up the back of the dress DeMilo's girls have lent DG. He shoves his wide-brimmed hat farther down over his matted hair. Lucky zipper.

"R-Robots?" he stutters. Somewhere in his mind Glitch knows he's a gentleman. And a gentleman knows a lady needs her privacy. When did they become this close?

"Yes," she says, "Robots." And she sounds kind of angry, but he doesn't know who's in trouble, him or the robots. "Specifically, Series 1487 Nurture Units. Ever heard of them?"

Glitch says, "No," because he hasn't heard of them, that is, not since he's lost his mind. But somewhere in the dusty corners of his brain a drawer opens.

Raw sniffs the air from his side of the cramped caravan. They're both turned away from her while she dresses, but Glitch can hear the awkward way she holds the garments, her uncertain breathing when she fumbles with the clasps. Like a child in a wardrobe. She stumbles through dressing like he stumbles through words.

He has heard of them. The memory swims through his head, distorted.

A hand on his shoulder makes him jump. He realizes that his eyes are squeezed shut even though he's turned away. "I'm finished," DG says. Glitch opens his eyes on a woman in a black dress. Her bare shoulders, and the ruby rose in her hair make her seem even more mysterious. And, Glitch notes, even more regal. DG wears the dress like it was made for her.

Before he realizes, he's describing the image that was in his head when she touched him. "Series 1487. Blond wavy hair, and thin grey hair. A mother, and a father. Protective, unconditionally loving." He stands, smoothing his dark trench coat like it is a fine suit.

DG nods slowly. "...Yes. That's right. Do you know about them?" she asks, quietly, holding her voice back, like she's preparing to say something else.

"Oh, no, wait, this is brilliant!" He can remember them! "Series 1487! You see, Nurture Units had many different functions, they could be programmed to nurture just about anything, but Series 1487, that series..." The memory trails off, but he knows why it's there. Why he knows so much about them.

"Wait," he says, recalling something more recent. "I have seen them, I mean, I just saw them, they were--" His finger points, and when he follows it, he sees it's pointed at DG. "You were hugging them."

"They're my parents." DG tells him slowly.

"They are..." Not her real parents. She's been carrying that knowledge with her all this time. "I'm so sorry," he says.

She shrugs. "I guess it makes sense. Sometimes, at night, I'd watch them. They never slept. They never..." She blinks. Glitch is still waiting for the end of that sentence, when she gasps, and holds her hand to her mouth. Crying.

Raw stands up quickly, concerned. But Glitch already has his arms tight around her. She scrunches her eyes closed. Her sobs are so quiet. He can only feel her shaking. Raw places a hand on her arm. The seer closes his eyes, breathing in. Then, she whispers harshly, "My real mother, she..."

She pulls out of Glitch's grip, but looks right at him. The moisture on her eyelashes reflects everywhere, making her blue eyes glisten. The flower in her hair is a bit smushed. But she's stopped crying. The familiar look of determination has returned.

"Your mother," grumbles Raw, "Want you to find her."

DG wipes the her eyes and heads for the caravan door. "And when I find my dear mother," she says, "I'm gonna punch her in the face."

Glitch remembers briefly the lady with lavender eyes, the Queen he was also searching for. He'd forgotten again until just now. Someday, he ponders, he'll have to find her and get some answers for himself.

Someday. Right now he thinks, if they could just keep going like this, then he'll never have to admit just how deep he's fallen. Maybe if they keep running, keep hiding, he won't have to worry about his old life anymore. Because, all things considered, he likes the one he's found himself in.

They find the Mystic Man, just like DG's robo-'rents told her to. Only when they get there, he's already lost forever. Or so they think. See, another thing DG didn't tell him was that she had a magic tattoo on her palm.

Later on DG will tell him that her mother left it for her to find, just like everything else. What Glitch suspects, though, is that she had it all along. Just like everything else.

She's trying to get some sense out of the Mystic Man. He and Cain keep watch by the door. That's right, Cain. The grumpy old Tin Man figured out they really were all looking for the same thing after all. The two of them are focused on the hallway, so they almost don't here when the Mystic Man utters the most horrifying words Glitch has ever heard.

"You have most brilliant, beautiful blue eyes. But you mother, your mother had lavender."

Glitch and Cain turn simultaneously. Before them, where once crouched a strange and out-of-place woman, now kneels a princess.

A pang in Glitch's chest alerts him faster than his mind can wrap itself around the truth. Before he even realizes why, he knows that this is bad news. Too quickly he thinks "in love with her", and then he shoves that thought back inside the closet, terrified now of what it means.


	4. For Me

Title: Bright as a Beacon, Chapter 4

Author: digitalruki

Rating: PG

Pairing: Glitch/DG

Summary: Sequel to "Headcase". Scenes in-between scenes of Tin Man.

Author's Note & Disclaimer: I don't own Tin Man. Any feedback on this fic would be awesome. SO SORRY for sparse updates. I know, It's bad. This story is like, the thing I get to do after I finish with everything else, or when I have so much to do I just want to escape. Your kind reviews have kept me on this story. Thanks so much, everyone!

Note2: So, is it really so bad that I changed the tense? I mean, I know it's like one of those things you should never do. But this chapter wasn't working, and changing the tense made it so much easier. I originally started with present-tense because Glitch was the kind of character who was only thinking in the present, at first. But he's grown a lot! So I'll either start writing DG's chapters in past-tense or just write the rest like this. And maybe change the other chapters to past-tense? Except the first one, because I love it?

-0-

DG wasn't happy with the series of events that had strung her along ever since the storm. She had never asked to be a princess, or the savior of a dying world. She hadn't asked to run until almost collapsing from exhaustion, or for any of these new...feelings.

Then again, what she'd originally wanted was to throw herself onto her bike and ride somewhere far away. After this nightmare, she found herself wanting that more than ever. To ride until she could forget what she'd seen in the O.Z. She wanted to run away from it, and hope they could sort everything out themselves. It wasn't her problem, and she didn't want any part of it.

Or, that's what she'd kept telling herself, all the way from her apparently-fake-mother's last embrace to the cold, smoky Bliss of the Mystic Man's dressing room. It was the mantra that was playing through the static in DeMilo's van, as Mr. Cain drove them through that horrible blizzard to the Northern Island. Screaming at her, trying to hold her steady in a rocky world, even as she began to question it.

But when she saw the Mystic Man sacrifice himself, heard Mr. Cain yelling at them to run, and felt Glitch's hand tugging her through the dark hallways of the palace, she wondered who would save these people. Who would be left to help them when she closed her eyes and left the nightmare to vanish like dewey smoke?

"Run!", Mr. Cain had said, and she had felt his big hand shove her towards the bedroom doors. It was enough to get her to start running, but not enough to keep the momentum. She couldn't run. Because that mantra was wearing thin and those men had guns. And if she didn't stop, and turn, and try to help...

She felt Glitch's tattery gloved hand snake into hers and pull. She looked at him, wanting him to tell her to run, to give her a reason to follow, but he was only staring forward--and it wasn't enough. Even the small warmth in his fingers wasn't enough to make her move on her own. He was only protecting her as he was supposed to. It was his duty, after all. They all protected her and helped her because that was their duty, but not their desire.

"Wait!--Glitch," she gasped, yanking hard to get him to stop. They'd turned a corner somewhere and she'd heard the longcoats pass them. They were safe, at least for the moment. Raw stopped, too, ran back, and put his arm around her shoulders. She could feel his concern, and his fear. She tried to share some of her courage with him.

Raw was touching both of them, and through his touch she could almost feel a different emotion, similar to Raw's but more erratic. Surging in and out like a heartbeat. Glitch had turned halfway, still pulling at her arm. They stumbled slowly toward a dark corner that led to a doorway.

"We have to go back," she whispered. Glitch shook his head, but he was looking at her now. Even in the dark, she could see him. Weird. When had she gotten night vision?

She wondered if he knew she could see the strange face he was pulling. "We have to get out of here, right now!" he hissed. "You should go ahead of us."

"No, I won't--" she almost yelled, but felt a furry hand cover her lips. And there was that erratic feeling again. It was warm, pulsing into her, feeding her.

Was it Glitch?

Even though Raw's hand was on her face, it was Glitch's brow that furrowed, his head that pulled in close to hers. He touched Raw's arm lightly, and pulled it away. Took her head in his hands and whispered harshly.

"You need to get out of this alive, because...You need to--" He was glitching. She cut him off.

"Because I'm the princess. Because I'm the savior."

Glitch tensed, and she could see his eyes widen. Scared. "No!" he cried. Even as a whisper, it echoed in the dark.

Then his voice became soft, and so hushed it was impossible to hear. "For me. You need to live...for me."

She heard him. Not because he was close enough. It was because Raw was touching them, connecting them.

Long after they broke apart, the connection lingered.

She ran. She seemed to know her way instinctively back to the main hall, even though her mind was blank. She didn't see where the flying monkeys came from, or what they did to Raw and Glitch. And even as Glitch's words were still ringing, silent as screams in her ear, she felt her feet lift off the ground and the sickening feeling of being in flight.

As the monkeys carried her away, she thought she might have seen him laying unconscious somewhere. She thought she might have seen the zipper on his head had been pulled open, the shadowy crevice inside peering up at her like a dark, empty eye. She remembered yelling his name.

Then the Queen was there--no, not there really. She was in DG's mind. Young and beautiful, and trying to tell her something important. DG tried to listen, tried to take in each word as the person she apparently was. A princess, a savior. But it had all been so long ago...did her mother really expect her to be the same obedient child?

Just because she'd sacrificed herself to save DG's life? Supposedly?

And then DG woke up. In her bed, in her attic room. The morning light streamed in, soft and quiet, through the window.

She was still wearing her biking jacket. And it seemed to be the morning after the storm. Outside her window, debris was strewn across the fields. So, had it really been a nightmare? Or was this a trick? Creeping down her staircase, listening to each step creaking in familiarity, she picked up the voices of Mom and Pops. Peering through the crack in the porch door, yes, she could see them standing out on the porch, just talking.

They beckoned to her, offered her breakfast, and even apologized to her. It was weird, but part of her was so happy to see the farm again that it wasn't listening to the other part of her that could still see the faces of her comrades, Mr. Cain, Raw...and Glitch. The dark eye boring into her, like a spot in her vision. Telling her something was wrong.

She was surprised how foggy the memory of the O.Z. already was. It was too easy to forget. To believe that the life she'd always known was still the real one. That all the suffering and destruction she'd witnessed was the dream.

She had asked for an escape, for a different life, so...when it came right down to it, this wasn't what she wanted to hear.

None of it was. Nothing anyone had said in the past few days, since the ticket from the friendly policeman, to her mother and the Guild and all the strange characters who had been dragging her from square one all the way to their own destruction had been even a bit of what she wanted to hear. Not until this morning.

And just her luck, even that was a fucking lie.

The illusion lifted around her like a glare fading into a sunset. She saw Azkadehlia standing there, watched as her mom and pop walked over to the sorceress. Smiling exactly like they used to with her. "Sorry, baby girl," cooed the old man.

Where was the person who was going to apologize to _her_?

Where was Glitch? She thought. _Dead_, came the answer, swiftly to her like a cold breeze. But that couldn't be true. Because when he'd been that close to her, in the shadowy hall, she could have sworn she'd felt his heartbeat. And she kept feeling it inside her, like he was right next to her, this whole time. It was slow, deathly slow, but still beating. Murmuring.

She felt herself reach for him, in her mind, reaching out across countless miles to lift him up and pour her life into him. He'd said he needed her to live. Had it just been that mind-connection thing? He needed her to be around, because she helped him think?

Did she even care?

Hands on her shoulders. Azkadehlia was trying to make a deal with her. She was still holding him, somewhere far off, as she felt her evil sister try to squeeze into her, and pull her away. But she was tired of being pulled.

She was tired of all this talk. Tired of riddles, of people toying with her, biding for her help. And she was tired of people getting hurt. She wasn't a fragile maiden who would just crumple when Azkadehlia took everything she loved away. Princess or whatever, if no-one else was left who was going to fix this world, then it might as well be up to her. Even if it was just to piss Azkadehlia off.

It could be worse. She could be dead...and part of her wished that she was. But as long as she wasn't, she was going to keep fighting. Because now, at least, she had nothing left to lose.

She was alive, and she was going to keep it that way, because there was someone who needed her to be, more than anything else.


End file.
